Of Friends and Brothers
by Kora
Summary: A night hike into the woods becomes an adventure that little Gerry and Alan will never forget. by Jel and Kora


_Yeah, hey, kora here!__  Me'n jel were bored fri/sat night and this is what happened.  Literally diff parts of this story are written by jel, others by me.  Enjoy!  Coach, fred bosley, alan, and gerry do not belong to us, they belong to Disney.  The bears are ours, though, and if you take them, we'll sue!  *smothers laughter* yeah…whatever.  Lol.  Go r/r!!!_

Of Friends and Brothers

by Jel and Kora

this takes place when Alan and Gerry are 6.

"Are you sure about this, Gerry?" Alan asked in a quiet voice. He pressed near his older friend, but not close enough that he touched. There were strange noises in the woods ... and it was sort of dark out. 

"Alan, I've been down this road a thousand times," Gerry stated. "I know it like the back of my hand." 

Sure, Alan thought. Sure you do. 

"The river's right up here," Gerry continued confidently. "Then we can eat." 

Alan followed trustingly. He was hungry. And tired. But he wasn't ready to complain yet. This was his and Gerry's first camping trip ever, and it was a big deal. None of the other boys in their class had been able to camping by themselves yet. But they had begged and begged their selective parents to let them go, and good grades did pay off, as they found out. 

"It's dark out," Gerry said suddenly, scratching the side of his head. "It looks different at night." 

Alan sighed. "You don't know where we are?" 

"No, no. I know," the other boy insisted, "I know exactly where we are. Just ... just that tree looks different." 

They walked on in silence for a few minutes. Alan uncomfortably shifted the backpack that was across his shoulders. Then his foot tripped on something and he fell forward into Gerry. The two fell forward, and a small hill was the only thing in front of them. Gerry couldn't stop himself as he tumbled downward, leaving nothing to halt Alan's fall. 

Gerry yelped when he fell into water that was at the bottom of the hill. He was surprised by it, not expecting the river for a while yet. Then a major splashed followed Alan's entrance, splattering Gerry with a thick mud. He frowned at the brown splotches that covered his wet shirt. 

Then Alan surfaced from his muddy area of the river, a pained look on his face. Mud covered his entire form, setting Gerry off into a round of laughter. Only Alan could find the muddy place to fall into. 

"I got mud up my nose," Alan moaned in a stuffy voice. He tried to get it out by blowing hard through his nose, but nothing came out. 

"Blow it like you got snots up there," Gerry instructed between laughs. As Alan did that, he glanced down at his backpack. 

Oops. 

"Um, Alan," he started nervously, "I think we have a problem." 

Alan glanced up from his nose-clearing efforts. "Wha'?" he asked in the same stuffy tone as before. 

"Our food is a little . . . soaked." 

The backpack that was floating in front of Gerry gave proof of his statement. 

"I've heard of some edible bugs," Gerry stated brightly, 

Alan simply gave him a look before he went back to trying to clear his nose out. He blew extra hard, and something brown and mucky flew out in front of his eyes. 

"Ewwww, Alan!" Gerry exclaimed. "That's gross!" 

Alan glared at him and said, "Well, if you had known where we were, I wouldn't be blowing mud out of my nose." He shivered in his wet clothes and looked at the forlorn backpack floating in the river. "I wanna go home," he sniffled, hugging himself. 

"But it's barely even dark yet," Gerry protested. 

"It's black out!" the younger boy almost yelled. "And I'm tired, and hungry, and wet. And our food is floating in the river, and my clothes are all muddy, and it's cold out. I'm not having fun. I want to go home." 

Sighing, Gerry plucked the backpack out of the water and slung it across his back. "Fine." 

Triumphantly, Alan got up and started to climb the hill which they had fallen down. When they reached the top, Gerry took the lead again, saying he knew the way better than Alan. 

Twenty minutes later found Alan concluding that they were going in circles. He distinctly remembered walking past that tree at least three times. When he tried to tell Gerry, though, the older boy insisted that it was a different tree. He knew his way perfectly; he never got lost. 

A large rumble was heard overhead, and within seconds, rain was falling down on them. 

"The weather man said it wasn't s'posed to rain tonight," Gerry complained, wiping drops from his forehead. He glanced at Alan out of the corner of his eye, and was met with a hostile glare. "Well, he said it wasn't!" he insisted. 

The rain started to come down in sheets, falling so hard that it was painful. Luckily, the two children spotted a cave right up ahead and charged for it. As he did earlier, Alan tripped up, taking Gerry down with him. They practically rolled into the dark cave. 

"Alan, stop tripping me," Gerry complained, sitting up and brushing himself off. He got no answer, so he looked down at his friend. Alan was lying perfectly still on his stomach, staring into the back of the cave. "What's wrong, Alan?" 

"See a shadow back there?" the blond asked shakily. "It just moved. And it's big. Really big." 

Gerry followed Alan's gaze into the back of the cave. He frowned when the back wall suddenly moved. It moved forward until they could just make out the shape. Big. Black. And furry. 

Then it stepped into the lighter part of the cave, and the shadow's size decreased until it was the size of a small teddy bear. A little bear cub tumbled towards them. It waved a little paw at them, and they couldn't help but laugh. 

Alan moved forward to touch it. 

"Alan, it could bite you," the other boy warned. 

"Shh," Alan whispered. "You'll scare it." He tentatively reached out his hand, but pulled it back when the cub growled. Biting his lip, he inched closer and petted the cub's back. "It's so soft," he marveled, rubbing the cub's thick black fur. 

Without warning, the cub twisted itself so that Alan's hand was caught in its mouth. The boy cried out in pain as the little bear chomped down. 

"Ow, ow, my hand!" Alan cried. He tried to wrench his hand from the cub's jaws. "Gerry, help me. I'm bleeding!" 

Gerry snapped into action, slapping the cub on its rear. The cub squealed, letting go of Alan's hand in the process. It ran into the back of the cave, as Gerry inspected Alan's wound. It wasn't that deep, but blood was flowing steadily. 

A deep growl emanated from the back of the cavern. It was scary enough to raise goosebumps on both of the boys's skin. 

"That was just an echo of the baby bear, right?" Alan asked hopefully, sniffing back tears as he clutched his injured hand tightly against his chest. "That wasn't ... that wasn't a mamma bear, or anything, right?" 

Gerry stared, wide-eyed, into the back of the cave. He didn't answer Alan's question. 

"Come on, Gerry, let's go," Alan insisted, nudging his friend on the shoulder. "It's not raining that hard." 

Still Gerry didn't move. 

"Please, Ger! We have to go. We'll get eaten, and then we won't be able to play football next year, and then we won't be good enough to play when we get to highschool, and-" Alan stopped as the little cub reappeared. Followed by its mother. 

She opened her mouth and let out a cross between a growl and a roar. Both of the boys screamed. Gerry grabbed Alan's good hand and pulled him out of the cave. They ran until the entrance of the cave ... where Alan tripped. Gerry was up in a second, but Alan, having glanced back over his shoulder at the big bear, was frozen in fear. He couldn't move. The bear stretched to her full height and stared down at the little boys. 

Gerry was feet from the entrance of the cave when he paused long enough to glance back and see Alan lying deathly still, a petrified gaze plastered to his face. Without hesitating another second, he nearly leapt to Alan's side, grabbed his arm, and pulled him onto his feet. "Alan, come on! We have to get out here!" Alan snapped out of his trance and soon was running through the woods with Gerry, their feet pounding on the underbrush. The sky continued to pelt them with heavy raindrops. Almost every second Alan slipped on the slick carpeting of wet leaves on the forest floor, but each time Gerry seized Alan's arm before the younger boy could go down and halued him back up.

The best friends continued running for what seemed like hours until they couldn't take it anymore. They both collapsed on the drenched ground. The sogginess didn't matter, though, for both of them were soaked through. Gerry and Alan lay side by side, panting, the rain splattering their faces and getting into their mouths (making it hard to breathe and therefore catch their breaths) for a rather lengthy period of time. Gradually, Alan turned his head towards Gerry's. "You think the bear's still following us?"

"Nah," Gerry said between breaths. "I think we lost her awhile back. Besides, I don't think they like to go out in rain." He suddenly remembered Alan's injury, and slowly stood up. "Alan, you have to get up. We gotta find a way back to camp so we can get the first aid kit and take care of your hand." 

Alan shivered on the ground. "But I don't wanna get up..." he murmured. 

"No, Alan, you have to," Gerry insisted firmly. "You'll get sick if you don't." 

"Tired..." 

Biting his lip, Gerry took a firm hold of his friend's face. He frowned when he felt the warmth of Alan's skin--yet he was shivering. 

"Alan, get up. Get up. Please, get up. Alan!" Gerry was starting to get scared. He slapped Alan's face, trying to wake him up, but slapped too hard accidentally. Alan's head bounced off the ground, then re-connected with a snap. 

Moaning, Alan started to cough harshly, leaving a guild-ridden Gerry in panic. Adrenaline rushed through his veins, and suddenly, Gerry felt like he could do anything. He pulled Alan up and half-dragged his friend through the trees. Alan walked a bit, or at least tried to, but he wasn't much of a help. Just as they were getting near the camp, Gerry heard crashing through the underbrush. He nearly panicked, thinking it was the bear caught up to them. 

Quickly, he turned around and started running in the opposite direction. Tree branches clawed at him menacingly as he dragged his friend away from the danger. But he was going too fast to be careful, and he tripped over a branch, Alan-style. 

The crashing was still following them, only to be muffled by the booming thunder. Rolling over onto his back, Gerry gasped in sheer terror at the figure looming towards him. Just as he was about to scream, a crack of lightning illuminated the sky, showing the mysterious creature to be of human form. 

"Gerry? Are you okay, son?" 

"Dad!" Gerry cried, voice drowning in joy. He allowed his head to sink back onto the cold ground, limbs trembling in exhaustion and relief. Gerry's father, Andrew, took one look at the scene and immediately took charge. He scooped both Gerry and Alan up in his arms and carried him through the woods. As they walked, the rain slowly began to lighten into a thin mist, then disappear all together. Just as the first pink hues of the sun were creeping over the horizon, Andrew emerged from the woods carrying Alan and Gerry. 

Waiting at the camp were Mrs. Bertier, Alan's parents, and Coach. The adults ran up to Andrew and pelted him with congradulations, thanks, and questions.

"Oh, Andrew, you found them!" Mrs. Bertier exclaimed. "We were so worried!"

"What happened?" Fred Bosley asked. Andrew shook his head,

"I don't really know. I found them about 5 or 6 miles into the woods. They were collapsed on the ground; they had been running from me. I think they thought I was a bear or something of that sort." 

The parents immediately took each of their children (Mrs. Bertier taking Gerry so Andrew's arms could have a rest) and began fussing over the fast asleep best friends. Coach frowned when he noticed the flushed hue to Alan's face, and the nasty-looking mark on the boy's arm.

"Now, now, this is all well and good, but it looks like young Alan is in some need of medical attention. I think we should head back to Alexandria and take care of that." 

Alan's mother gapsed when she saw the condition that her son was in, and the group immediately followed Coach's orders.

***

TWO DAYS LATER

Gerry knocked softly at Alan's bedroom door. "Come in," a voice called from the inside. Gerry slowly, almost hesitantly, pushed the door open. Alan gave his friend a huge smile when he saw who his vistor was.

"Your mom said that I could come up and see you if I wanted, so..." Gerry explained. "I'm not...bothering you, am I?" he continued falteringly.

"No, 'course you're not," Alan replied with a shrug of his shoulders. He motioned towards a spot on his bed beside him. "C'mon, sit down. I need someone to talk to. It's soooo boring, Mom's got me trapped in this room all day. She says it's for my own good, but I think I'm gonna be bored to death." 

Gerry grinned at Alan's apathy towards his illness and injury and sat down beside him. "So how are you doing?"

Alan rolled his eyes. "Besides being treated like I'm made of glass, which I hate, I'm okay. I don't see what the whole big fuss is about."

Gerry played with a tip of Alan's blanket, avoiding his friend's eyes. "Well, I mean, that bite you got got infected, and mom says you have nemona or whatever...which isn't good I think..."

Alan shrugged. "So?"

Gerry chewed on his lip, still unable to look at Alan directly. "I'm sorry for getting us lost out there," he finally said in a small voice. 

Alan squinted a little at Gerry, trying to understand. "What are you apoigizing for?"

"For getting us lost, and getting you hurt and sick and--"

"Gerry, are you kidding me?" Alan exclaimed. "Don't apoligize! That was soooooooo much fun!"

Gerry did a double take. "Fun? I thought--you--that night..."

Alan laughed. "Yeah, well, of course I wasn't happy when I was cold or tired. But that was days ago! Now...who else can say that they got bit by a baby bear?"

Gerry took one look at Alan. "You're crazy." He paused, then held out a hand. "Friends?"

Alan clapsed Gerry's oustretched hand. "Not friends. Brothers."

The End.


End file.
